Business of Design 2013 - Embracing design at the Top

On October 16, 2013, leading business and design innovators were invited to Cooper-Hewitt's Business of Design Breakfast, an annual National Design Week event, for a discussion of the challenges and opportunities around design thinking. Cooper-Hewitt Director Caroline Baumann and Undercurrent CEO Aaron Dignan co-moderated the conversation, which was hosted by Design Within Reach at their SoHo retail studio. Themes included the role design thinking plays in corporate culture, how design thrives when embraced from the top down, and the challenges of fostering design in business.

2013 participants include:
· Caroline Baumann, Director, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
· Aaron Dignan, CEO, Undercurrent
· John Edelman, President & CEO, Design Within Reach
· Robert Fabricant, Vice President of Creative, frog
· Jon C. Iwata, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, IBM Corporation
· John Kilpatrick, CEO, Cabin (Funded by Samsung NYC Accelerator)
· Yaron Kopel, Chief Innovation & Design Officer, SodaStream
· Doreen Lorenzo, President, Quirky
· John McPhee, Chief Operating Officer, Design Within Reach
· Michael Phillips, Chief Operating Officer, Jamestown L.P.
· Mauro Porcini, Chief Design Officer, PepsiCo
· Marybeth Shaw, Chief Creative Officer, Wolf-Gordon
· Alex Tepper, Global Director of Innovation, General Electric
· Greg Van Bellinger, Hardlines Design Director, Target
· Simone Vingerhoets-Zeismann, Executive Vice President, Artek USA